The CFL - The Light Bulb That Screws YOU!
August 2007
Will environmentally safer CFL light bulbs cause our economic ruin?
Yes, everybody wants a cleaner and more environmentally safe planet. Yes, we should all go green or do what we can to eliminate waste. Yes, we need to take care of the Earth. However, far too often anyone with a brain that criticizes environmental measures is ostracized by the liberal media and scientific community, but hat is beside the point. What about when making a better environmental decision results in less American jobs and more for China? - A country with notoriously lax environmental regulations. This is the case with the trendy CFL bulb. Here is summary of story brought to us by AIM (Accuracy In Media).
• The Alliance for Climate Protection, which is part of Al Gore’s Live Earth campaign, tells people that by using compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs, they can save energy, save money and live longer. But they fail to mention that the bulbs are made in communist China and are potentially hazardous to human health.
• GE-owned networks, MSNBC-TV, CNBC and NBC, are extensively covering the concerts. But GE is under fire by its own workers for promoting the CFL bulbs while making them in China. The website www.screwthatbulb.org tells the story of how GE is plugging into the green bulb movement while moving American jobs overseas.
• NBC Ignores U.S. Jobs.
• NBC is not only taking one side in the debate over the causes of global warming and climate change, it is taking the side of its parent company, GE, which makes “green” light bulbs in Red China at the expense of American jobs and workers.
• Point one in the “commitment to change,” featured on NBC’s website, declares, “Replace those old, outdated light bulbs with new compact fluorescent lights - CFLs (the curly ones you can find at your local grocery or drugstore). They last longer and use less energy than traditional bulbs.”
• The screwthatbulb.org website points out that “Since 1980, employment in GE lighting has dropped by 68 percent. If everyone switched to the Chinese-made CFL bulbs, all U.S. plants would close.”
• In a display of total hypocrisy, “GE supported a European Commission ban on Chinese-made CFLs…so CFLs bought in Europe are manufactured in Europe,” it reports.
• Hence, GE is selling out its American workers to build a toxic light bulb in China that may poison Americans while encouraging Americans to buy the bulbs that will put more GE workers in the U.S. out of a job.
• Making a profit while making toxic light bulbs and outsourcing jobs to China is a bit much, even for a company whose MSNBC subsidiary considers Keith Olbermann a credible newscaster.
• An article in the April 9, 2007 issue of Time magazine, entitled: “51 Things You Can Do to Make a Difference,” Maryanne Murray Buechner touts the benefits of compact fluorescent light bulbs, saying that, “CFLs cost three to five times as much as conventional incandescent bulbs yet use one-quarter the electricity and last several years longer. They are available virtually everywhere light bulbs are sold.”
• But there is a potential problem. Buechner reports that, “each bulb still contains 5 mg of mercury; you’re not supposed to toss them out with the regular trash, where they could end up in a landfill. So the bulbs are one more thing for you to sort in the recycling bin.”
• But recycling CFLs is not as simple as Buechner suggests. The bulbs can not just be sorted in the recycling bin because most areas don’t offer CFL recycling. Even NPR reported on February 15, 2007, “The bulbs contain small amounts of mercury, a neurotoxin, and the companies and federal government haven’t come up with effective ways to get Americans to recycle them.”
Get the full scoop
NBC Promotes Toxic Chinese Light Bulbs
By Cliff Kincaid and Andy Selepak - July 5, 2007
Our take
Yes, CFL may be better but at what cost – the ruin of the American economy? Or is it that goal of the zealous environmentalist that if we have no jobs, we will not pollute as much since we will not have any electricity to power our CFLs? Old light bulbs are still cheaper, contain no mercury and can keep Americans workings. We say use them.
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